Germany in global rankings
These international rankings reveal many of Germany’s strengths – but also a weakness.
Germany ranked first in the Nation Brands Index
Germany reached the top place in the Nation Brands Index in 2017. One thousand people are consulted in each of a total of 20 countries for this international survey on the image of 50 nations. They rate the countries on the basis of six criteria: exports, governance, tourism and investment, immigration, culture and population. What the participants especially appreciate about Germany is German products and the labour market. When it comes to governance, Germany comes fourth after Canada, Switzerland and Sweden. The weakest scores were awarded for integration and – something that rather surprises Germans – the beauty of the landscape.
Germany is globally competitive
A ranking by the World Economic Forum considers Germany one of the world’s most competitive countries. It was ranked fifth among the 137 economies analysed in the Global Competitiveness Report 2017/2018 – behind Switzerland, the USA, Singapore and the Netherlands. Among other things, the report assessed corporate innovation and the macroeconomic framework as well as financial markets, infrastructure and education systems.
Germany has an attractive labour market
Only the USA is more popular than Germany among employees. This is the result of a study by the Boston Consulting Group and StepStone, the online career service, among 366,000 employees and 6,000 human resources managers worldwide. Germany has moved several places up the ranking since the last survey and now lies ahead of Canada and Australia.
Germany needs to catch up with regard to digitalisation
Place 17 out of 35: Germany still has some catching up to do when it comes to digitalisation. The expansion of its glass-fibre network is only progressing slowly. However, other factors also play a role in the digitalisation ranking of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) – for example, digitalisation of public administration, research into digitalisation and digital business models. The digitalisation ranking is part of a comprehensive innovation index, in which Germany does significantly better by reaching fourth place.
